1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic apparatus having a main body and an information storing part which can be loaded on and unloaded from the main body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic apparatuses such as electronic still cameras include cameras of the kind using a card called a memory card on which a solid-state memory is mounted as a recording medium. The electronic still camera of this kind has been arranged to have the memory card attached to and detached from the camera in the following manner:
FIG. 1 shows by way of example the conventional electronic still camera. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes the main body of the electronic still camera. Reference numeral 1 denotes a memory card which is arranged as an interchangeable recording medium. An inserting opening 102 is provided in the main body 101 for inserting the memory card 1. An eject button 103 is provided for ejecting the memory card 1. FIG. 2 shows the memory card 1. As shown, the memory card 1 is provided with a group of contact holes 1a for electrical communication to be conducted with the main body 101 of the electronic still camera when the memory card 1 is mounted on the main body 101. The contact holes 1a are arranged to be connectable with a connector 107 which is arranged on the side of the main body 101 of the electronic still camera. FIG. 3 shows arrangement made inside the inserting opening 102, including a slider 104, an interlocking lever 105, an eject lever 106, the above-stated eject button 103 and the connector 107 provided for electrical communication with the memory card 1.
The memory card 1 is attached and detached to and from the main body 101 in the following manner: Referring to FIG. 3, when the memory card 1 is being inserted in the direction of arrow A, the foreend part of the memory card 1 comes to interfere with bent parts 104a of the slider 104 as shown in FIG. 4. When the memory card 1 is being inserted further, a group of signal pins 107a of the connector 107 come into the group of contact holes 1a of the memory card 1 to be electrically connected with them. The slider 104 then also moves in the direction of arrow A together with the memory card 1. This movement of the slider 104 causes the interlocking lever 105 to turn clockwise. The eject lever 106 and the eject button 103 then move in a direction reverse to the direction of arrow A. As a result, the eject button 103 comes to protrude from the main body 101 of the electronic still camera, and the insertion of the memory card 1 comes to an end as shown in FIG. 5.
In ejecting the memory card 1, the eject button 103 is pushed in the direction of arrow A. With the eject button 103 pushed, the interlocking lever 105 turns counterclockwise to cause the slider 104 and the memory card 1 to move in a direction reverse to the direction of arrow A. The electronic still camera comes into the state shown in FIG. 4 to have the memory card 1 disconnected from the connector 107 and caused to protrude much from the main body 101 of the electronic still camera. The memory card 1 thus can be easily taken out.
However, the conventional electronic still camera arranged as described above by way of example has presented the following problems:
The connector 107 must be provided with a great number of signal pins 107a, including 20 to nearly 70 pins, for exchange of signals with the memory card 1. A large pushing force of 1 to 3 kgf is necessary, therefore, for inserting the memory card 1 into the connector 107. The memory card 1 thus cannot be easily attached or detached directly with fingers. Further, if the memory card 1 is pushed in a biased manner, the memory card 1 cannot be correctly loaded and tends to be damaged.
Further, when the electronic still camera is not loaded with the memory card 1, a foreign matter tends to come into the inserting opening 102. The presence of such a foreign matter tends to damage the connector 107 when the memory card 1 is inserted to be connected to the connector 107. Besides, the conventional electronic still camera does not easily permit a Waterproof or dripproof arrangement.
In order to lessen a force required for pushing the eject button 103, the eject button 103 must be arranged to have a long stroke. Such arrangement, however, causes the eject button 103 to protrude too much from the main body 101 to hinder a shooting operation with the memory card 1 loaded on the electronic still camera.